New Leaders Old Tricks

As a part of the Imagining the Future of Leadership symposium at the Harvard Business School, some experts were asked and their thoughts gathered on what they thought “was necessary today to develop the leaders we need for tomorrow”

The Ten Experts in this video are listed in order of appearance, and below each of their names is a short summary (paraphrased) of what their thoughts on the subject were.

Andrew Pettigrew, Professor, Sïad Business School, University of Oxford

Leaders need to manage across borders and boundaries; influence across boundaries requires cooperation, diplomacy and international understanding; today’s leaders would be sorely challenged.

Bob Johansen, Distinguished Fellow, Institute for the Future

Engage with people in a reciprocal way. To give away with the trust that more will come in return.

Barbara Kellerman, Lecturer in Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School

Leaders are in far less control today than in the past, and they need to be aware of all 360 degrees around them because technology has made it so that stuff is coming from all directions.

Deborah Ancona, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Leaders need to connect with other leaders, the single leader is gone. A leader at the top is good but it is necessary to have leaders across the board and in different sectors and organizations so that they may all work together to solve the problems at hand and move the sector or organization forward.

She argues against the trends being discussed at the symposium, saying that the hierarchy structure is not gone, but rather has been camouflaged a bit due to the hierarchy less structure of the internet technology sector. She says that “adept ambidextrous communicators” will be the ones who succeed.Dr. Ellen Langer, Professor, Harvard University

Leaders must be in the present in order to recognize talent and solutions.

Evan Wittenberg, Head of Global Leadership Development, Google, Inc.

Building connections between various players in todays world, for instance between government, business, and Non-Profit Organizations.

The role of connecting people, serving as a bridge.Marshall Ganz, Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Leadership is about dealing with uncertainty. There are 2 challenges, one is motivational and the other is strategic.Scott Snook, Associate Professor, Harvard Business School and retired Colonel, US Army Corps of Engineers

In a flatter world with more interdependencies, the trend is going back towards finding a purpose. How to take all the differences and finding one common goal or purpose, all the while celebrating the differences.

Comments

Developing tomorrow’s leaders is a very complex process with many unknown variables…therefore I find it very helpful to see, what experts say. So thank you very much for the great video and the good summary!
I think we should keep this topic in mind and observe any development to write about it, as it most certainly is a topic of interest to us, as we might be those future leaders 😉

Thank you Saiid for the interesting videos and brief summarization. I find two questions being key to successful leadership: 1. How do we manage increasing uncertainty and complexity in a hopeful way?(Marshall Ganz) 2. How can we secure values while celebrating the differences? (Scott Snook)